http://www.jfcomposers.com/miwa.html

http://www.morinohibiki.com/

EDUCATION: Born in Sendai. Miyagi University of Education, studied with Fumihiko Fukui and Masao Honma.

CAREER: Professor, Seiwa Gakuen College; Organizer, Asian Composers’ Forum in Sendai (1987, 1995). Organizer, Sendai Asian Music Festival (1990, 92, 98) . Organized Pan-Pacific Youth Orchestra Concert, Sendai (2008).

CAREER: Piano début, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. After 1964, she produced an experimental series ‘Contemporary Music as Myself’ (1977–85), Tokyo, mixing Japanese enka with European avant-garde styles. She has collaborated in improvisatory work with artists from contemporary, jazz, pop and traditional Japanese backgrounds including Kazuo Ohno, Hideo Kanze, Frederic Rzewski, Wayne Shorter, Sergei Kuryokhin, Yuji Takahashi and John Zorn.

COMMISSIONS: Lincoln Center (Roku-gatsu no muttsu no koe, for the opening of Alice Tully Hall, 1970), Tokyo Summer Music Festival (Yuki no koe, 1996) and Japan National Theatre (Horobita sekai kara, 1997).

STYLE: Her works doesn’t necessarily sound Asian, ranging stylistically from bunraku and Japanese traditional music, to Western classical and pop music. (J. Michele Edwards, Oxford Music Online)

EDUCATION: Tokyo University, study with Teruyuki Noda

HONORS & AWARDS: Music Competition of Japan (1975); Takei Award (1991)

RECORDING: Scena. Noriko Yasuda, organ. Japanese Composers 1988. Japan Federation of Composers JFC-R8802 (1988).

EDUCATION: Master’s in composition, Aichi Prefectural College of Arts and Music; degree in aesthetics, Tokyo University

HONORS & AWARDS: Kanagawa Art Festival; Japanese Symphonic Association; Japan-France Contemporary Music prize;

COMMISSIONS: CBC Broadcast; Nagoya City; Gedok; Central Aichi Symphony; Toyota City Concerthall

CAREER: Professor of Sound Design, Nagoya City University; Program Director of Nagoya City and of Toyota City Concert Hall; General Director, Nagoya City University Sound Studio

EDUCATION: Born at Tokushima. Studied composition with Minao Shibata and Yoshio Hasegawa, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (1958–63).

CAREER: With Takehisa Kosugi and Mieko Shiomi, he organized the Group Music for improvisation (1958). 1968, teaching at Chiba University (professor in 1979); 1971 lectures at National University of Fine Arts and Music and other universities. 1973-74, in New York and San Francisco on a Rockefeller Foundation grant.

STYLE: includes improvisation, Three Dimensions (1961) for three brass groups, each with a separate conductor. 1960s use of graphic notation (Autonomy series) and clusters (Orchestra 1966). Incorporates jazz beginning with Jazzy Work for chorus and orchestra (1967) to Combo '77. His most popular work, Tenshu monogatari (music for a TV drama revised as an opera), is successful for careful text treatment and synthesis of European and Japanese style elements. 1990s his operas and orchestral works combine elements of jazz and the avant garde with both European and traditional Japanese music.

HONORS & AWARDS: award, Art Festival, 1975 (for Maboroshi) and 1997 (for Symphony no.3). (Masakata Kanazawa , Oxford Music Online)

EDUCATION: Born in Tokyo. Composition study with Tomojiro Ikenouchi, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (1952); Worked at electronic music studio, Cologne (1955-56);

CAREER: Lecturer, Elisabeth Music College, Hiroshima (1954); Part-time lecturer, Ochanomizu University (1961); Professor, later Dean, Osaka University of the Arts, (1968-1977); Professor, Naomi College (1983-1991); Adjunct Professor of Music (contemporary music), Meiji Gakuin University (since 1991). Organized Contemporary Music Festival (1957-62).

HONORS & AWARDS: Queen Elisabeth International Competition (1953);

STYLE: introduced 12-tone techniques, serialism, aleatory music to Japan; some use of traditional Japanese instruments.

CAREER: professor of music (retired) Naruto University of Education; organist/pianist, Tokushima Baptist Church.

COMPOSITIONS: He has written extensively for choir and keyboard instruments, often on Christian themes.

STYLE: A curiously dissonant set of variations on Nearer, My God, to Thee is heard first with the familiar melody introduced in the pedal, and concludes with a serious but resolute statement capped by a shout of praise. Hosanna! was inspired by the Palm Sunday story of John 12:12-13 where the crowds of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus with shouts of “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!” However, the initial music is an outgrowth of the last part of Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Art of Fugue as it first introduces the B-A-C-H theme in a fugal exposition. The middle section announces the cock’s crow, in anticipation of events leading up to the crucifixion. In the final section, the audience is invited by the composer to shout Hosanna! at any pitch in the steady rhythm of the pedal ostinato as the piece builds to full organ and intensity. (Notes from an email from the composer).

RECORDING: Hosanna! Bryan Ashley, organ. Japanese Composers 1987. Japan Federation of Composers vol. 14 (1987).

EDUCATION: MM, Tokyo University of the Arts

CAREER: primarily known as arranger for orchestras and wind ensembles

HONORS & AWARDS: Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (for L’été-L’ouboi rouge, 2000); Japan Symphony Foundation Composition Award (2002);

EDUCATION: Toho Gakuen School of Music

HONORS & AWARDS: Music Today Competition (1982)

EDUCATION: born in Tokyo, Japan. Studied composition with.Nobuo Terahara (Aram Khachaturyan's disciple), and conducting with Mr.Shigenobu Yamaoka.

HONORS & AWARDS: prize, Student Composition Contest in Tokyo, 1972; Composition Competition, Japan Society for Contemporary Music, 1987.

CAREER: since 1982 concerts supported by Japanese Society for Contemporary Music, Japan Federation of Composers, The Committee for Music and Dance in Japan; Russia & Japan, St Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra; Office Director, The Committee for Music and Dance in Japan (1996-2000); Organizer, 'MUSIMA' for peace concert; Secretary-general, Japan Russia Musicians Society; Editor, journal New Composer (composer’s website).

EDUCATION: Doctor of Arts (composition), Kunitachi College of Music

CAREER: Professor University of the Ryukyus. Composer, Musical Theatre, Nancheng City Hall Cultural Center

HONORS & AWARDS: 1^st place, Brass Band Composition Competition (for Bangamuri, 1977); National Foundation for Music (for Impossible for the Route, 1977). Grand Prix, Japan Art Encouragement Prize, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Special Award (for Opera Fly to Kijimuna 1990). (composer’s own website).

EDUCATION: Toho Gakuen School of Music, studying with Makata Moroi; Chopin Academy of Music, Warsaw, studying with Dobrowolski;

HONORS & AWARDS: Music Competition of Japan, 1967

EDUCATION: CNSM, Paris

HONORS & AWARDS: International Composition Competition Xenakis (1983); International Composition Competition Max Deutsch (1983); Takei Prize (1985); Original Stage Work Prize (Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs)

EDUCATION: Born in Tokyo. 1997 Premier prix, composition, Paris Conservatoire. Composition study with Noda Akira, Masayuki Nagatomi, Jo Kondo, Gérard Grisey, Kazuyoshi Akiyama.

HONORS & AWARDS: 2nd Idemitsu Music Award; Special Jury Award, Goffredo Petrassi International Composition Competition; Gaudeamus prize; International Music Week, ISCM.

CAREER: professor of Fine Arts, Nihon University (composer’s own website).

EDUCATION: 1947 Born in Nagoya; 1970 Faculty of Technology; Tokyo National University; 1975 Composition, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music; 1978 post graduate course, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music

COMPOSITIONS: for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, and choir.

STYLE: romantic. “His music reflects two worlds, the ‘melodic wind round’ where all is delicacy, elegance and sensuality, and the ‘rhythmic wind round’ which abounds with constructive, centrifugal energy. His recent creative activity is devoted to effecting a unification of these two worlds.”

CAREER: part-time professor, Toho Gakuen School of Music; member, Board of Directors, Japan Federation of Composers, Inc.

HONORS & AWARDS: 1974 prize, NET-TV Competition of Composition; 1977 Grand Prix of Composition, 8th International Competition of Ballet Music, Geneva and the Citizen's Award of Geneva; 1982 Special Prize and Incentive Prize, Creative Stage Art, Fine Arts Festival; 1984 Prize for Excellence, Fine Arts Festival; 2000 18th Nakajima Kenzo Prize. (composer’s website).

RECORDING: Fujin-Raijin. Ryuta Suzuki, organ. Camerata CMCD 28051 (2004).

EDUCATION: Born at Osaka. Studied composition and theory with Akio Yashiro, Teruyuki Noda (through postgraduate level), Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

CAREER: Professor, Tokyo College of Music; Musical Director, Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka.

HONORS & AWARDS: 1974, First Composition Prize, Japan Music Competition; 1977, Grand Prix in composition, Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition (for Heterophony for string quartet, 1975) and Luigi Dallapiccola Composition Award (for Mutazioni, 1977). 1980, Kecak (1979) selected as best work, International Rostrum of Composers; awards at ISCM World Music Days (for Ode for Ekstasis, 1981), 1982, 1984, 1988 and 1990. Otaka Prize, 1988 (for Heterophony for two pianos and orchestra, 1987), and again in 1992 and 1993; 1990, Kenzo Nakajimia Award; 1991 Kyoto Music Award; 1994, Japan Contemporary Arts Promotion Prize; 2001 ExxonMobil Music Prize; 2004, Suntory Music Award; 2005, Mainichi Art Prize. He was composer-in-residence, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (1993–4) and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (1994–7).

STYLE: heterophony prevails, “subtly transforming the intervals, rhythm and melody of his dense multi-layered textures,” similar to Ligeti’s ‘micropolyphony.’ Later works have complex textures due to addition of trills, tremolos and harmonics. (Yoko Narazaki, Oxford Music Online)

EDUCATION: master’s degree, Tokyo University of the Arts; Paris Conservatoire

HONORS & AWARDS: Otaka Award (1996); Sunitory Music Award (2003)/ Art Encouragement Prize of Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2005)

EDUCATION: Born in Yamanashi prefecture. Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music (bachelor’s degree 1985) and master’s degree (1988), composition study with Teruyuki Noda, Toshiroh Mayuzumi, Akira Miyoshi.

CAREER: lecturer in music, Seitoku University (Chiba)

HONORS & AWARDS: 1^st place, Kanagawa Prefectural Art Festival (1985); 3^rd place, International Music Council’s International Rostrum of Composers (for Zephyrus 1987); prize, Foundation for Promotion of Orchestral Music in Japan, broadcast by NHK-FM (for Notos, 1992 and for Destruction for orchestra, 1996); Ginastera Musical Composers Competition (2000). (composer’s own website).